Last weekend we had some fantastic handicap tennis played at the club. The Secretary’s Cup is great as it is a random draw for partners which means that members are likely to partner someone they might not have met before. In the group stages we had 7 sets that went down to the last game and all of the groups were very close.

On Sunday the play off group had all 5 pairs finishing with two wins and so went down to game difference with three going through the quarter-finals. Simon Brett and Tom Compton battled their way to the final to take on Stuart Allison and Oliver Harris. The final was extremely close and at 5 all it was looking like a 7 all forty all was on the cards but Stuart and Oliver managed to raise their game just enough to see them through with an 8/5 victory. Our thanks to Philip and Lyn Robinson and Andrew and Sally Falk for once again producing a great lunch on both Saturday and Sunday and congratulations to Oliver Harris and Stuart Allison on an excellent tournament.

As members of the club will know, work on the court extension has started (you can read more about the plans for the extension in the November 2014 and April 2015 Newsletters). One of the first stages of the project is to quarry and cut the stone for the outside wall.

The Tennis Court lies within the curtilage of a Grade I listed estate and the outside stone wall is a planning requirement for the extension to fit into the existing surrounds and to do this it will replicate the nearby terrace wall.

The stone for the wall has been quarried from the Hythe seam in the nearby Winter’s Pit in Easebourne. The seam is the upper greensand laid down in the lower cretaceous period, about 125 million years ago (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greensand_Ridge) .

The stone was quarried by exposing the sandstone seam and drilling deep holes which are filled with special slurry; this expands over about a day and causes a 5 tonne cube of sandstone to be released – no explosives.

It took a month to quarry sufficient stone which was then taken to Shropshire to be cut to the required sizes. These are currently being transported to Petworth for storage and drying and for the surface to be tooled with the Leconfield Estate design. The photos below show both the quarrying and the finished stone, including those forming the plinth and the large coping stones, a very impressive transformation.

Royal Melbourne Tennis Club are currently hosting the Australian Open and are doing a great job of broadcasting the matches on YouTube. The quality of the video is good and they are using 5 cameras placed around the court to provide a variety of viewing angles.

Although the live matches aren’t at very convenient times for UK viewers, videos for the completed matches are uploaded to be watched later. Most of the mens and womens quarter finals are currently available to view.

Here’s a taste of what’s available from the quarter final between Rob Fahey and Ruaraidh Gunn.

This year’s tournament was the 25th and 12 pairs entered, including three generations of the Bevan-Thomases, and last year’s winners Charles and Columbus O’Donnell. Groups 1 and 2 played on the Sunday with winners, runners-up and one lucky third place to go through to the quarter finals. Tim and Gus James prevailed in Group 1, with the O’Donnells as runner-up. Lulu and Francis Hutley beat Peter and Isabella Maxton into second place. The third places were between Tim and Harry B-T and Rory and Sebastian Scott, the Scotts got the nod on the basis of a better games count. Lulu Hutley deserves a mention for winning a great rest against David B-T by volley returning a fusillade of balls driven at her corner.

Monday began with Nick and Oliver Harris taking on David and Luke Fortune who prevailed, next up Tim and Oscar Parker edged Tim and Guy B-T, and then the Fortunes and Harrises collectively managed to record a double bagel. Despite this setback the Harrises managed to hold their nerve against Tim and Guy B-T and record a win. The Parkers had already claimed winning position, but the last match (B-Ts vs Fortunes) offered any permutation for runner-up and third place for the other pairs. The Fortunes after a nervous start pulled off a second win to get second place and give third to the Harrises.

The group stage was notable for the success of the pairs with the higher handicaps with three pairs looking like good bets, the Jameses, Hutleys and Parkers. However it is fair to say that the lower handicap pairs had many opportunities to win but seemed to play tentatively at crucial points.

The first QF featured the Jameses vs the Harrises; Nick and Oliver on one serve, bar tambour and owe fifteen and Tim and Gus receive 30, this was a step-up from the earlier tough handicaps and Nick made it tougher by hitting three tambours, the Jameses marched into the next round. The Hutleys trounced the Fortunes; the Parkers had peaked early and lost to the Scotts, and the Maxtons were too much for last year’s winners.

SF1 saw the Hutleys beat the Jameses, with Francis demonstrating that his game is rapidly improving. In SF2 the Scotts, with left hander Sebastian proving a useful foil to his father’s delicate chips took on the Maxtons. Peter was serving well and Isabella has worked hard at her game, and had already beaten their opponents looked favourites, however the Scotts with a 7 point handicap advantage had other ideas and with Sebastian playing much more confidently edged a win.

The 8 game Final was then between the Hutleys and the Scotts’ 5 point advantage giving them owe 15 every game. The Scotts started steadily, with Lulu Hutley looking somewhat shocked at getting to the final, and moved into a 3/0 lead and held their nerve up to 7/1 when a late burst from the Hutleys looked like they might turn it around but the Scotts held on to win 8/3.

It was a very good tournament which all (well nearly all) the competitors seemed to thoroughly enjoy. Tom and Louis’s marking was excellent and the tournament ran very smoothly. If you normally go skiing at this time of the year I suggest that you leave it a bit later next year and get your entry in early, it would be good to see The Bevan-Thomases, the Harrises and an all-female pair amongst the winners in the next 25 years.